• Sign Up! To view all forums and unlock additional cool features

    Welcome to the #1 Fiesta ST Forum and Fiesta ST community dedicated to Fiesta ST owners and enthusiasts. Register for an account, it's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the Fiesta ST Forum today!


Lost/forgotten car skills

Clint Beastwood

2000 Post Club
Messages
2,583
Likes
2,317
Location
Laguna beach
#1
I helped a student at a college I occasionally work with (as IT/cybersecurity) by bump-starting their old VW beetle. Their mind was blown, and it got me thinking about how many old-school skills we've used over the years that could be considered "lost". Here are a few off the top of my head




1. Bump-starting a car. Dead battery? If you have a manual trans, no big deal! Get the car rolling with the ignition on, put 'er in gear and drop the clutch, it should fire right up! On some cars, like the VW beetle I mention above, you can use reverse and usually just pushing yourself backwards out of a parking spot is enough speed/distance for it to start.
2. Changing a fan belt on a VW beetle, while it's running, with a stick. Anyone else ever done it? Had lots of fast VW's back in the day at Carlsbad raceway's drag strip in Carlsbad CA. My fast aircooled beetles (low 10's) had no batteries most of the time, and shredded fan belts, so being able to swap the belt while it was running was handy.
3. Pepper in the radiator as a short-term fix for a small leak. Yep. I've done it, and it totally got me out of the middle of the 215 on the way back from vegas. I had a little packet of fast-food pepper in my glove compartment, no cell service, and some water... so I remembered hearing it, tried it, and it worked!
4. Clutchless shifting in a manual when the clutch went out. Yep, it's possible. Nope, it's not fun. Yep, it'll get you out of a scape if you absolutely value getting where you need to go more than the health of your whole transmission.
5. Doing maintenance.

Whatchu got?
 


D1JL

7000 Post Club
Staff Member
Premium Account
U.S. Navy Veteran
Messages
7,820
Likes
4,054
Location
SFV, So.Cal.
#3
Here are some doing maintenance

First one would have to know what points are. LOL
Adjusting points with a match book cover.
Then setting distributor timing with just a test light.
That is of course if you know what a distributor is. LOL

Here are some more
Draining the water out of the fuel pump bowl.
Or even adjusting a carburetor.
How about changing tires on rims with just pry bars.
And patching inner tubes.

There a ton of them.
 


Messages
145
Likes
249
Location
Western NY
#5
1. Pumping the pedal a few times to get gas to the CARBURETOR before your car will start!!
2. Checking to see if you have spark by arcing the plug on the rocker cover..
3. Fixing your starter by banging on the starter solenoid with a screwdriver....
4. Three things required for a car to run, fuel, air and spark!! Was easy to figure out your problem but now with 25 bizillion sensors......
 


jmrtsus

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,521
Likes
1,155
Location
Ooltewah
#7
I made $$ in high school rebuilding Carbs. Remove, rebuild, re-install and tune was $100 plus parts for a 4bbl. Can't remember doing any 2's. Tune-ups with refurbishing points and plugs plus new air filter was $30 for a V8. Both jobs were easy to do if you had average hand tool experience and could follow instructions for rebuilding carbs. Points were filed and adjusted and plugs were cleaned in a tiny bead blaster and re-gaped.
 


Messages
184
Likes
149
Location
Lansdale
#8
Balancing twin carbs by putting a rubber tube in your ear and listening to each until they were the same pitch by adjusting the idling screws.
 


Ford ST

2000 Post Club
Messages
2,921
Likes
3,051
Location
Pleasant Garden
#10
I'm 29 about to be 30 and I know how to do most of these.
I love an old school small block motor. I think about how much it cost to do a Turbo upgrade with auxiliary fuel you could buy a 383 stroker for the same price if you include all of the extras like the intercooler, tune and what not.


Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
 


jmrtsus

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,521
Likes
1,155
Location
Ooltewah
#11
Balancing twin carbs by putting a rubber tube in your ear and listening to each until they were the same pitch by adjusting the idling screws.
I almost bought a '69 Porsche 911L in '76 just to have the two 3 bbl Weber's to keep in sync! The carbs back in the day were the thing most people were terrified to mess with which meant there was good money for those that did work on them!
 


RubenZZZ

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,436
Likes
915
Location
El Monte
#13
I snapped a clutch cable on a fox mustang once leaving a mall 5 miles from home. I would clutchless shift and coast to a stop after shutting off the engine in traffic. I would get it going again by starting it in gear. Gotta love 4.10 gears and a strong starter. LOL


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


OP
Clint Beastwood

Clint Beastwood

2000 Post Club
Messages
2,583
Likes
2,317
Location
Laguna beach
Thread Starter #16
I snapped a clutch cable on a fox mustang once leaving a mall 5 miles from home. I would clutchless shift and coast to a stop after shutting off the engine in traffic. I would get it going again by starting it in gear. Gotta love 4.10 gears and a strong starter. LOL


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
lol! Had a v8 fiero with 4.11’s and the only starter that fit properly against the subframe was a beefy bastard from a bigass van lol. My ignition coil died in the middle of an intersection with cross traffic comin quick so I drove a quarter mile up a hill with just the starter motor. Not a smooth way to travel lol. But that low end torque! 0-1mph monster!
 


KnockOff

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,348
Likes
450
Location
Menifee
#18
My clutch cylinder in the trans went out on my old focus right as I started my car to go home from work. Drove 65 miles clutchless. Mostly empty freeway but I got it home though.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 


HardBoiledEgg

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,076
Likes
516
Location
Fontana
#19
Seems more like a rigging thread. Hummm


Had a car with a dead alternator, swapped in a charged battery and drove it half a hour home.

Putting two batteries touching post to jump it with no cables.

Jumping a wire from battery to started to bypass some type of no crank issue
 


Similar threads



Top